This invention relates generally to doors for entry to the cargo areas of transport vehicles, for example, aircraft, and more particularly relates to an electrically powered outwardly opening plug-type cargo door for an aircraft.
Outward opening doors for use in cargo compartments of aircraft are advantageous compared to inward opening doors in that they do not occupy space in the cargo compartment that could otherwise be used for cargo. Plug-type doors for aircraft are advantageous over nonplug-type doors in that an adequate level of safety can be achieved with greater simplicity of mechanism by a plug-type door to prevent the blow-out or accidental opening of the door when the interior cargo compartment pressure is greater than the exterior ambient air pressure, for example, when the aircraft is in flight.
Previous outwardly opening plug-type cargo doors have been spring-counterbalanced and manually operated from the ground. In many of these prior art doors, a strut is used to prop the door open while cargo is being loaded and unloaded. The strut propping the door open prevents the door from inadvertently closing due to wind gusts or other external factors that would overcome the counterbalancing of the door.